After getting my double dose of the Dalai Lama on Friday and Saturday, and taking his message of interdenominational cooperation to heart, I thought I might go for a short run on the “Spirit in Nature” trails up in Ripton. For those of you who may not be familiar with this small trailed area, you can get to it by taking a right turn on the Goshen-Ripton Road shortly after passing through “downtown” Ripton, and the well-marked trailhead and parking area can be found on your left in less than a mile. This quiet woodsy area clearly takes its inspiration from the much better known Robert Frost Trail, found nearby on Rt 125, but instead of having a gentle walk accented by Frost poems, the signs carry short spiritual readings from many different religious traditions, with each trail having its own denomination. In keeping with the theme of the day, I began my run on the Buddhist path, and one of the signs carried the following thoughts:

Thoughts from the Buddhist Trail

Despite its appeal, the Buddhist path was far too short to qualify as a decent trail run, and knowing that there were many more trails in this area worthy of exploration, I sought to make a longer run in this very pretty and contemplative place. Curiously, some hikers assume that trailrunners like me must be missing something as we pass by at our faster paces. In some ways, they are correct – one’s brain can only absorb so much information per second, and when traveling through the forest more quickly, some information is missed. On the other side – my brain seems much more actively engaged in the world around me when running, especially on trails, so some of my most contemplative thought actually does transpire when I am moving along faster than the average walker. So, and easy run through this area wasn’t as sacrilegious as it first sounded.

For those who aren’t as experienced with the trails, there is a challenge to hiking during the fall, which becomes apparent while trying to follow infrequently used paths such as these. Narrow paths can be easily obscured by fallen leaves! So, after a while, I felt like I was running in ” a maze of twisty little passages, all alike” (For any old computer geeks out there, I am paying homage to the ancient text-based computer game from the late 70’s called “Zork“). As a result, I found myself back at the trailhead far sooner than expected, and sought out another nearby, more easily followed trail to explore.

There are many rarely traveled forest service roads emanating from the Goshen-Ripton Road, so I thought I might explore one which began not far from the Spirit in Nature trails. Heading south a little further, I turned right on Forest Service 92, and after about a quarter mile, ducked under the gate to take the right turn onto Forest Service 92A, an even less travelled road. This 4WD road angled up the side of a hill alongside a stream, and crossed over the Oak Ridge Trail, which I had run earlier in the summer during a descent from Mount Moosalamoo. Despite the rapidly thinning foliage, this section of trail was in many ways more scenic that I envision it would have been midsummer. The foliage which might normally form an umbrella over the trail had thinned to the point where I could actually make out some rather pleasant views of the nearby mountaintops. The sun filtered through the last of the orange leaves made this a pleasant jog up a remote country lane.

Forest Service Road 92A

After about a mile of climbing, I passed by the first of two nicely kept camps, and continuing past the second camp, the road got narrower and rougher, eventually turning into a true trail, before disappearing altogether, indicating that it was time for me to turn around, descend, and return to my car. Near the top of my climb, I came across this near perfect clustering of shelf fungus.

Tree Fungus

After an easy descent, I returned to my parked car after a little more than 4 miles running, with about 500 ft of vertical climbing. I have a hunch that on my next run, I will be running through bare trees, but the upcoming stick season does have one advantage – the views open up when the leaves are down.